The Hollywood Foreign Press Association filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against Penske Media Corporation, the parent of Variety, over the 2023 acquisition of the Golden Globe Awards.
The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, accuses PMC of taking control of the awards show through a “sham process tainted by fraud.” It also alleges that PMC instigated a boycott against the Globes to weaken the show and make it vulnerable to a takeover.
A spokesperson for PMC and the Golden Globes denied the allegations in a statement.
“Today’s lawsuit continues the absurdity and irrationality that the industry has come to expect from the defunct organization formerly known as the HFPA,” the company said.
The HPFA, a non-profit association of foreign journalists, ran the awards show for nearly 80 years until a diversity scandal prompted by a February 2021 report in the Los Angeles Times. The report found that the HFPA had no Black members, which led to a boycott from industry publicists and led NBC to drop the broadcast in 2022.
The HPFA adopted a series of reforms before agreeing to sell the Golden Globes to PMC-owned Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge. The lawsuit alleges that HFPA members approved the deal under false pretenses.
Among other things, the suit alleges that HFPA members were assured that they would retain lifetime voting rights for the awards and lifetime tickets to the show. But, the suit states, “Penske later reneged on that fundamental promise, guaranteeing voting rights only to those members who accepted direct employment with the Penske Trust.”
“The result is a captured voting body that operates at Penske’s discretion rather than as an independent journalistic organization,” the suit continues.
The suit argues that PMC, which owns several other trade publications, wields monopoly power over the trade market, the “secondary awards” market and the “For Your Consideration” ad market, and has taken steps to exclude HFPA members from participating in those markets.
The HFPA was expected to wind down its operations after the sale of the awards show. But last year, the HFPA board voted to pause the dissolution process “to fulfill the organization’s duty to investigate the malfeasance and conflicts of interest” in connection with the sale, according to the complaint.
The suit seeks damages of at least $150 million.
“The Golden Globes transaction closed more than three years ago and received all required approvals —any assertion that it did not close, or remains subject to reversal, is once again unequivocally false,” the PMC statement continued. “This latest act of duplicity is a new low, even for the HFPA. The attempt by former HFPA members to leverage the Golden Globe Foundation, an independent nonprofit, simply to secure Golden Globes tickets is an unfortunate distraction that inappropriately diverts resources from legitimate charitable causes. We remain troubled that the HFPA, an organization so widely criticized for ethical failures, non-inclusivity, racism, and misconduct involving talent, continues to find attorneys willing to push such illegitimate claims.”